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This DJ Just Unleashed the Most Epic Rant Against Pioneer DJ

Pioneer DJ equipment, specifically their CDJs and DJM mixers are the standard in top night clubs and on festival stages all over the world. And there's a good reason for this - their DJ equipment is usually rock solid reliable, easy to use, and sounds great. But lately there have been some major problems with their equipment for some users, which they have failed to address.

DJ and producer ill.Gates is one of these users, and he recently dropped a brutal open letter to Pioneer. He lays out all of the problems he's had with Pioneer equipment in spite of numerous calls to their tech support, and all his best efforts to troubleshoot. Check it out below.

Dear Pioneer,

You won. You became the ‘industry standard’ brand. There is no escape. Congratulations.

As the ‘industry standard’ brand DJs around the world (myself included) are more or less forced to rely on the stability of your equipment every time they take the stage. Yes, we can bring our own sound cards, controllers, etc. but space in DJ booths is extremely limited and your brand dominates the space. Getting even a laptop in there can be a challenge, let alone a MIDI controller, Serato box, USB hub and whatever else is required to take our performance beyond the ‘push play’ cliché.

So we DJs adapted. We sucked it up. We sold our controllers. Many of us switched from Ableton and tried to adapt. Personally: I moved to using a hybrid Ableton / Serato / MixEmergency setup in order to provide an audio / video set with finger drumming and camera feeds. It wasn’t optimal, but it worked. For a while.

…UNTIL YOU THREW US SERATO USERS UNDER THE BUS.

Ever since OS X El Capitan you have been blaming Apple for shortcomings of your Serato side. I’ve been going back and forth with your “tech support” team for months. I’ve done everything you asked. I did all of the updates. I installed, uninstalled, and reinstalled every driver you asked me to. I learned to bring a network cable with me so I could update the firmware before every performance. I even REPLACED AN ENTIRE MACBOOK at my own expense when your “tech support” team blamed imaginary Apple hardware defects.

NONE OF IT WORKED.

Your “tech support” team has been blaming Serato, Apple, USB hubs, anyone but Pioneer. It has been MONTHS.

Today I finally sucked it up AGAIN. CDJs and the 900NXS do not work for Serato, so I put my setup up for sale and ordered a DDJ-SR controller despite the fact that it is too large to bring as normal carry on luggage and I will have to argue with flight attendants on every single flight from now on.

Then I go online and find an announcement for Serato users saying NOT to update to OSX 10.11.4 or it will break the ENTIRE PIONEER LINE!

It has been MANY versions of OSX since El Capitan first came out. There is no excuse. Serato works GREAT with El Capitan unless you use Pioneer equipment. Native Instruments gear works GREAT with El Capitan. Even mom and pop plugins work fine! The only thing that doesn’t work is the combination of Pioneer and Serato!

I WONDER WHY?

I can only assume at this point that Pioneer is trying to pressure Serato users into switching to Rekordbox!

What was with that 900-SRT mixer that cost so much more than the normal 900-NXS? Then all of a sudden the 900-NXS supports Serato? Too bad for any Serato users who bought the SRT model! Sucks to be them! Should have used Rekordbox.

Now the new 900-NXS2 model starts showing up in my DJ booth despite the fact that it’s not on my rider. The promoters figured it was newer, so it had to be better than the normal 900-NXS right? NOPE! No Serato support AT ALL! Sucks to be me, should have used Rekordbox.

And what is with the XDJ-RX ‘all in one’ controller? Seems like an excellent, space saving solution for venues around the world… except it doesn’t support Serato and never will! Sucks to be you! Should have used Rekordbox!

I could keep listing examples but I have to go online and figure out a new compact solution to be able to play my A/V/Live sets without using any of your horribly overpriced equipment because I will never, ever, EVER buy another Pioneer product in my life.